My best friend’s chin trembles, and I hate how fragile she appears. “Selene.” Her voice is hoarse with emotion. “The pack is going to keep me sequestered away until the next Sacred Seven. Apparently, this first month for witches can be…difficult.” Tears well in her eyes, and she looks scared. Everything she endured today couldn’t have helped that.
But the pack Sawyer is a part of is good, and I know they will take care of my friend until I can see her again. The weeks will go by in a blink of an eye, I reassure myself.
I tuck a stray lock of hair behind her ear. “You’re a badass. You’ll do great. I’m sure of it.”
Sybil’s eyes flit over my tattered dress and the puckered flesh of my forearms. “You’re okay?” she asks tentatively.
I nod and give her a tight smile. “I’m fine.”
She frowns but then forces out her own smile. “I’m so relieved.” She swallows, and her eyes are welling again. “You should go home, Selene,” she says, her voice hoarse with emotion. “It’s freezing out here. We can talk more later.” As she speaks, Sawyer begins to gently steer her away from me and toward a car parked behind the ambulances.
“I’m holding you to that,” I call out after her.
I stand there, watching as Sybil and Sawyer head toward their waiting ride. Memnon comes to my side then, one of his arms draping comfortingly around my shoulders.
“Hey, Selene,” Sybil calls out over her shoulder. She pauses to turn back to me. “Seven other supernaturals were saved from bonds tonight. You did that. Not the Politia, not even the shifters. You. I hope you know how proud I am to be your friend.” She flashes me a shaky smile and another tear leaks from my face. “Now get out of here, you freak,” she says fondly, “before you catch your death.”
CHAPTER 52
The next morning, I wake to hands on my thighs. Those fingers dig into my skin.
Good morning, fiancée.
Memnon punctuates the words with a searing kiss to my clit, and I wake with a gasp. I nearly rise off the bed.
Memnon smiles against my sensitive flesh.
“I’ve decided, est amage, that as your husband, I’m going to make you come on my tongue at least once a day—maybe twice.”
“What?” I say dazedly. Last night returns to me then, but Memnon’s touch quickly eclipses the memories.
I begin to sit up, but the sorcerer pushes my torso back down, hauling my hips up closer to him.
“And since you can no longer command me,” he continues, “I’m going to control the pace of your orgasms, starting right now.”
Before I can respond or even come to grips with the fact that Memnon is holding my legs and ass like it’s his favorite teddy bear, the sorcerer kisses my clit again.
I cry out, my hands threading into his hair.
Memnon single-mindedly sucks on my clit, his tongue stroking the overly sensitive knot of flesh again and again.
The feeling is overwhelming.
Sensation is rising in me, and my core clenches uselessly.
“Memnon!” I sob out.
Est xsaya, he corrects. Say it, and you’ll get something besides just my mouth on your clit.
“Est xsaya,” I gasp out, hoping for a brief respite from the almost unbearable amount of stimulation coming from that nerve bundle between my thighs.
“Good woman.”
Again, I feel him smile against me, and his mouth moves down from my clit. If I thought, however, I’d get a break from the immense sensation, I assumed wrong. Memnon’s magic merely replaces his tongue, and it’s just as cunning, the blue power circling that knot of nerves again and again.
The sorcerer’s tongue circles my core before dipping inside.
He groans. “Missed the taste of your pussy.”
I’m writhing beneath him. I throw my head back. “Need you inside me.” It’s less a demand and more a plea.
“No,” he breathes against my skin. “Next time I come, you’ll be wearing white and I’ll be your husband.”
My breath hitches. Our unbreakable oath to marry—now that I’ve fallen for Memnon, it’s been enacted once more.
“But right now,” he continues, “you’ll come for me against my face like the good little witch you are.”
Maybe it’s Memnon’s confidence, or maybe I’m quite suggestable, or maybe I’m finally overwhelmed by sensation, but all it takes is another searing kiss of his and my orgasm shatters through me.
I cry out as I come, my fingers tightening in Memnon’s hair. I feel his grin as he greedily continues to eat me out through the aftershocks of my climax…and then beyond.
“Why aren’t you stopping?” I nearly weep the words out when it becomes clear he won’t.
There’s one more thing we’re going to do every day, he says down our bond as he feasts on me. I’m going to tell you I love you more than life itself, and you’re going to tell me those three magic words as well, starting today. And if you don’t, he continues, then I’ll simply eat you out until you do.
You are such a bastard.
He laughs against my pussy, causing me to cry out.
Yes, he agrees wholeheartedly. I am.
I gaze down the line of my body toward Memnon’s bowed head. “Look at me,” I command.
There’s no power behind the order, but still, my mate lifts his head, and his eyes meet mine.
“I love you, Memnon. I love you so much. And you don’t need to hold any part of me hostage to get me to say it. I love you.”
His bourbon eyes glitter as he bathes in my words. Finally, he releases my hips, and they drop limply down to the bed.
As I stare at him, I feel a tightness in my chest. I rub my sternum, but the pressure doesn’t go away.
Memnon notices.
“The magic from our unbreakable oath is taking root again,” he says softly. The sorcerer moves up my body. “I feel it too.” He dips his head and presses a kiss against my sternum. “Do you remember what that means?” he asks.
It feels like my heart has lodged itself in my throat. “It means,” I say softly, “we’re getting married today.”
CHAPTER 53
Memnon leaves the room to make us coffee and tea and—judging by the sound of the gas burner igniting to life—a surprise breakfast. I feel like the emotions in me are too light and expansive to be contained beneath my skin.
So this is love.
I let out a happy little laugh that probably sounds like I’ve lost it just as Nero prowls into the room then unceremoniously hops onto the bed.
I take his furry face into my hands. “Can you believe I’m getting married?” My stomach flutters at the thought. Flutters!
Nero gives me a look that says, Yeah, no shit lady, no one’s surprised.
But I am caught off-guard in the best way possible. This oath was loathsome to me when I first made it, but now…now I feel oddly thrilled. I was married to Memnon once. He was an incredible husband then.
He will be an incredible husband again.